Member Sign In

You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating indiv idual securities.

If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.

Positive Momentum Continues

Favorable consumer spending data and boost from Apple’s (AAPL - Free Report) China deal should help sustain the market’s positive momentum in today’s session. Stocks were up strongly last week on a delayed seasonal bump, with the Fed announcement pushing stocks towards closing an impressive year in style. Volumes typically thin out in these final sessions, but the overall sentiment should remain positive.

This morning’s positive consumer spending report builds on the recent run of favorable economic data. The positive revision to the Q3 consumer spending data in Friday’s final look at the GDP report showed the improving trend coming into the final quarter of the year. The ‘headline’ Q3 GDP growth had a big inventories component, reversal of which is expected to keep Q4 GDP growth at roughly half of that quarter's growth pace. But improvements on the spending front, along the lines of this morning’s reading, will be the more important metric than any pullback in the current quarter’s ‘headline’ GDP growth.

On deck for release a little later today is the final look at the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey for December, which is expected to show a modest gain from the preliminary December read a few weeks back, but materially up from the shutdown-induced weakness the month before. This key measure of consumers' mood will end the year below the July high, but has nevertheless showed notable momentum this holiday month.

The only useful economic data coming out the rest of this holiday-shortened week is coming out Tuesday when the November Durable Goods and New Home sales numbers come out. The expectation is for some loss of momentum in the home sales numbers tomorrow, but that is largely relative to the blowout numbers the month before. Inventories remain low and the overall trend continues to remain favorable.

In corporate news, Apple has finally struck a deal with China Mobile that will make iPhones available to China Mobile’s more than 700 million subscribers early next year. The long-awaited deal had been in the works for years, with the sticking point being details like pricing gand revenue sharing. We don’t know those as to how those issues got resolved in the final deal, but this nevertheless provides the iPhone maker a better platform for competing effectively with Samsung and others in the Chinese market. In other news, Facebook (FB - Free Report) shares start trading as part of the S&P 500 index today.

Resources

Client Support

Follow Us

Zacks Research is Reported On:

Yahoo

MSN

Marketwatch

Nasdaq

Forbes

Investors.com

Morningstar

Copyright 2017 Zacks Investment Research

At the center of everything we do is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of our proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system. Since 1988 it has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +25% per year. These returns cover a period from 1988-2016 and were examined and attested by Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, an independent accounting firm. Zacks Rank stock-rating system returns are computed monthly based on the beginning of the month and end of the month Zacks Rank stock prices plus any dividends received during that particular month. A simple, equally-weighted average return of all Zacks Rank stocks is calculated to determine the monthly return. The monthly returns are then compounded to arrive at the annual return. Only Zacks Rank stocks included in Zacks hypothetical portfolios at the beginning of each month are included in the return calculations. Zack Ranks stocks can, and often do, change throughout the month. Certain Zacks Rank stocks for which no month-end price was available, pricing information was not collected, or for certain other reasons have been excluded from these return calculations.

Visit performance for information about the performance numbers displayed above.